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Some of you are new to oil painting and as you enter our community I am sure you have a lot of questions. Needless to say, many of your questions have been asked many times here on WC and some interesting and educational discussions have already taken place.

This isn't necessarily a replacement of your question though, so if what you are wondering isn't answered here (or by doing a search) please do start a thread with your question and get that good one-on-one that WC is so well known for!

Also, don't forget you can do your own search to find previous discussions -
here is an article that can help you get the most out of searching here on Wetcanvas:

Clean Up!
Oil paints can be easily cleaned up with soap and water, though it seems that there are as many ways to clean up as there are oil painters!How Do You Clean Up? -a poll

Varnishing
Varnishing serves two main purposes. First, varnish serves as a layer of protection between your painting and the environment--it is meant to be a removable layer. It also serves to even out the sheen of your painting if you have the glossy/dull patches which are quite common to oil paints. If you choose to varnish, you should wait six to twelve months after the surface is touch-dry (you may use "retouch varnish" to even out the surface before then if you wish). Varnishing is optional and in the case of needing to show or sell the work before the six month mark, it is a common practice to let the customer know they may return the piece at a later date to be varnished if they wish (with the added bonus of being able to interact with the customer again!).Step-by-step instruction

Painting Supports (Surfaces)
*The most common surface for the beginning oil painter is stretched cotton canvas or canvas mounted on some type of board. (Often these cheaper boards are mounted on cardboard, this is fine for practice and learning but they do have a tendency to warp, especially at larger sizes, and these cardboard boards are often not seen as archival.)
*Commercially prepared canvas usually has 2-3 coats of acrylic primer (also known as acrylic "gesso" though real "gesso" that is traditionally used in oil painting is quite different). It is often fine to paint directly onto commercially prepared canvas, though the primer coating can be thin especially in cheaper brands and many people like to add a few more coats of acrylic gesso to ensure that the oil will not seep through the primer (thus rotting the canvas eventually) or merely to further obliterate the weave of the canvas, creating a slightly smoother texture to work on. I will reiterate, though, especially for beginner oil painters, there is usually no problem painting on the commercial canvases as-is.
*Another common surface for oil painters is board, hardboard or mdf being the most common (and least expensive, definitely cheaper than canvas). You can usually purchase hardboard at your local Home Depot or Lowe's-type place and it is usually quite inexpensive (cheaper than decent paper even). The shop will usually cut the board to your specifications and you can then prime it with several coats of acrylic gesso.

Visiting some of the other forums, such as the color theory forum, can be advantageous for the new painter too.

Make sure you visit some WIPs (Works-in-Progress) posted by some of our experienced painters here. You will learn so much from them!

Dianne

If anyone would like to add to the list of links, please post them onto this thread http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=214553 which is an "open" version, retaining all the comments and discussion as originally posted - one of the Mods can subsequently add them to here